Georgia State Patrol increasing presence on busy bar night

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is considered one of the busiest nights for bars and nightlife.

Drivers will see a lot of officers from Georgia State Patrol patrolling the streets to make sure no one’s driving while drunk. Some couldn’t be happier.

If anyone’s happy about GSP increasing patrol on the busiest bar night of the year, it’s Mia Fairweather.

“I am a victim of drunk driving at a young age, and my whole family was in the car, and even to this day, there’s still lasting effects from what happened. Everybody’s not as fortunate to live through that, but I mean, it’s important. I would tell everyone, stay safe,” Fairweather said. “I think that the patrols are very important, definitely.”

GSP officers patrolled the streets as those who packed the bars left to make it home safely.

“We’re dedicated to being out there and making sure that everyone’s safe and trying to reduce those crashes. We really want to reduce those fatalities. We had 17 fatalities in 2024 and we would love to see those numbers come down,” said Crystal Zion with Georgia State Patrol.

Officers spent a good part of Wednesday night setting up checkpoints, taking a closer look at each and every driver that comes through. So if you’ve been drinking and you want to avoid jail time. It might be best to take advantage of free rides with Lyft or free towing to make sure you get home safe.

“Obviously, like sometimes during like, busy hours, it’s harder, but if you just wait for like a couple minutes or so, definitely useful,” Jaymie Bromfield said.

“I like that there’s resources out there, and that’s important. You know, I always try to be a resource for my friends when I can. And I say, hey, you know you need a place to stay. Even you know you can come sleep on my sofa. I can come pick you up if you’re too far. But you know, I think it takes a community effort to make sure that people can have fun safely,” Fairweather said.